11th Annual Flying Cloud Air Tour – Saturday, September 20

Cloud 7 members and friends, here’s an opportunity you don’t want to miss: Ben McQuillan’s 11th Annual Flying Cloud Air Tour, scheduled for Saturday, September 20, 2014. This will be a fun, 200 mile VFR trip to Springfield and Granite Falls, interrupted with go kart racing and a tour of the Fagen Fighters WWII Museum. Last year’s tour to East Gull Lake and Longville was a blast, but saw only two C7 aircraft participating out of 25 total — let’s try to get those numbers up for 2014!

Interested in going? Sign up an airplane on Schedulemaster if you want to fly PIC, and contact Keith Tschohl (katschohl@gmail.com) to get your name on Ben’s list, or if you’re looking for a ride. Since this is an official Cloud 7 event, this won’t count against your two short X-countries.

From Ben:

Hi everyone, it’s almost Air Tour time!

I’ve had a few balls up in the air during final prep for this year’s tour but they’ve now landed and it’s time to gear up for the most fun aviation day of the year. See the details below and let me know if you’ll be able to join us this year. We have 11 planes signed up already and are hoping to get close to the 41 we had in 2012. Also, please forward this along to any of your pilot or passenger friends who may want to join us-the more the merrier. A big thanks to Inflightfor promoting and sponsoring the event as well as Modern Avionics for their long-standing support and being the official fuel provider of the Air Tour. You don’t want to miss this one!

Time: Arrive with your airplane fueled and ready by 8:00am to be parked in starting position.

Meeting place: Due to the expected turnout, I’ve worked with our new airport manager Charlie Boening to reserve the entire length of Spring Lane on Flying Cloud’s south side. This is the new taxi lane on the south side of the airport that parallels the ‘B’ taxiway-the same area where the Air Expo is held. This will give us ample space and easy access to the less-busy south parallel runway. Vehicle access will also be available through the gate on Charlson Road.

The pilot safety briefing begins promptly at 8:15 and, of course, we’ll have strong coffee and healthy doughnuts. The first departures should be airborne around 8:45.

This is a quick flight to our first fun destination. Schwanke Engines will be hosting our go kart races as well as providing transportation. There will be awards & gift certificates handed out for the fastest lap, slowest lap, best pass (of another driver), and most unruly helmet hair. Cost of the track should be $15-25/person so please bring a little cash.

An easy 35 mile hop for lunch at the amazing Fagen Fighters WWII Museum is next on the itinerary. The museum has quadrupled in size and attractions since we were there in 2008 and it’s among the best private aviation collections in the country. Details to come on the lunch but it should be around $15. The museum also recommends a $10 donation.

Publicity: As always, we’ll get as many air-to-air photos as we can in addition to all of the ground pictures. We’ll also be back in the MN Flyer and Midwest Flyer magazines. The local newspapers for both destinations are sending out notices to locals so we may have onlookers and a reporter or two at both stops. So wax your plane and comb your hair, you could soon be airport-famous!